Near Rugby in Morgan County, Tennessee — The American South (East South Central)

Meet the Massengales

Photographed by Tom Bosse, March 18, 2023

1. Meet the Massengales Marker

Inscription. The Massengale Family
Independent and Self-Reliant The Dempsey Massengale, Jr. family lived on this ridgetop just south of present-day Rugby from the 1860s to the early 1900s. The cabin faced the mid-19th century historic trace that Rugby founders named Allerton Road, still visible today. Archival sources indicate that Allerton Road was once part of the Jamestown to Jacksboro Pike. Based on the topography, this was a terrace farmstead, with the cabin at the top of the ridge, behind the kiosk, and fields, pastures, orchards, woodlands located on the slopes of the ridge, down to Cox and Whaley Branches. Outbuildings would have included a smokehouse, chicken house, corn crib, stock pens, and equipment shed.

The stone chimney remains seen today are the only visible evidence of the Massengale cabin today. Students from the University of Tennessee and Rugby community volunteers, under the direction of Dr. Charles Faulkner, carried out extensive archaeological testing to locate and determine dimensions of the Massengale cabin, map the site, and recover material culture left by the family. Today the corners of the cabin

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are marked with sandstone.

[Caption]: Mary Lowe, Elizabeth Massengale’s sister, inside the cabin. The picture was taken by well known traveling photographer Elmer Foote in 1901.

Some Massengale Family History Descendants of English and Scots-Irish immigrants to Virginia and the Carolinas began settling northern Morgan County around 1811. They had to grow or produce virtually everything they needed to survive in this extremely remote area. Other pre-Rugby family names in this area included Freels, Brewster, Buck, Tompkins, Whaley and Riseden, all of whom may have interacted with several generations of Massengales.

Matthew Massengale and his sons, Dempsey, Sr. and William, moved from Ashe County in northwestern North Carolina to Tennessee in the early 1800s, when they were assigned various plots of land in northern Morgan County. The Massengale name can be traced back to Yorkshire, England, as early as the 16th century. Daniel Marsingell (one of many alternate spellings) sailed from England to the New World and owned land in Virginia by 1649. Two generations later, James Massengill (Mathew’s grandfather) moved from Virginia

Photographed by Tom Bosse, March 18, 2023

2. Meet the Massengales Marker

Marker is on the right.

to North Carolina.

The first evidence placing Dempsey, Sr. in the immediate Rugby area is a land grant issued by the State of Tennessee in 1829, for 200 acres along the east bank of White Oak Creek. Records show that son Dempsey, Jr. and his Cherokee wife Dempsey, Jr. (Betty Ann) lived in adjoining Scott County and were members of Longfield Baptist Church from 1850-1857. By 1860 the couple and six children (Margaret, John, George W., Henry C., Ann and Mary) were living here. The youngest son, William Grant, was born here in 1867. Dempsey, Jr. died in the mid-to-late 1880s and Betty Ann in the latter half of 1892. A recently located record shows a Massengale grave at Rugby’s Laurel Dale Cemetery which may be for Dempsey, Jr., Elizabeth or both.

According to family accounts, William Grant lived in the family cabin here after his parents death, along with his wife, Mary Atterson, and their first four children, who were born between 1882 and 1900. By the time their fifth child Lummy Sr. was born in 1905, the family had moved to nearby Robbins. The abandoned cabin remained standing into the early 20th century, and was dismantled with

Map to Massengale Homeplace Kiosk image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Tom Bosse, March 18, 2023

3. Map to Massengale Homeplace Kiosk

the logs and stone used at another location, probably in the 1920s. The property changed hands several times before Historic Rugby acquired it and it later became part of the Rugby State Natural Area.

Uncle Dempsey’s Tales Fortunately some of Uncle Dempsey’s tall tales have survived thanks to a young Irish girl, Esther Walton, whose father was Rugby’s manager from 1881 to 1907. A favorite interest of Esther’s was visiting the “local” folk, scattered pioneers whose own arrival in the area came years before that of the Rugby settlers. Mountaineer Uncle Dempsey Massengale’s clever stories obviously kept her enraptured. Picture a seven or eight year old girl sitting on the cabin porch with Dempsey as he spun one of his stories.

Uncle Dempsey’s Wonderful Shot
(Handwritten by Esther for a school paper April 30, 1897) Another story which [the late] Uncle Dempsey was wont to tell with great pride and seriousness was about the time when he killed a deer, a jack fish, and a wild turkey at one shot. According to his own account, he had been in his day, a marvelous hunter, but on this occasion, he used to acknowledge, luck, as well

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as good marksmanship had been in his favor.

He had been hunting one afternoon, but, after tramping for several miles, had seen only two or three squirrels, and was consequently in a very bad humor. As he was walking down a path leading to a mountain stream, he suddenly saw something at the foot of the path, something which dispelled his vexation like magic. It was a noble deer, drinking in fancied security at the brink of the creek. An instant for steady aim, and the report of Uncle Dempsey’s rifle went – crack! through the woods. But at the same moment, an immense jack, leaping out of the water to catch a fly, came in direct line with the deer’s head, while a fine wild turkey, startled by the sound, stood still just opposite both, on the other bank of the stream. And the bullet, passing through the deer, dispatched the jack, and killed the turkey on the other side.

“It was a master shot”, Uncle Dempsey used to say, and so impressive was his gravity that no one ever dared doubt the authenticity of his narrative.

[Caption]: Uncle Dempsey Massengale
Based on his great-grandson Lummy Massengale.

Mrs. Taylor and Lucy
Recording the Massengale Family in Word and Watercolor The best evidence of what the Massengale homesite looked like comes from a watercolor painting of their log cabin and a photograph of Elizabeth Massengale standing outside the cabin.

Mrs. Taylor, an Englishwoman who visited Rugby with her daughter in 1887, painted the watercolor. The painting, dated November 14, is labeled “Mrs. Massengale’s – Betty Ann’s” and depicts a two-pen log cabin. The larger story and a half pen has a large chimney on the gable end, and the smaller, one-story pen also has a chimney on the gable end. The two pens appear to be covered with wooden shakes.

If one looks closely in front of the doorway of the smaller pen, boards laying on the ground parallel to the cabin appear to be a small porch. Two possible outbuildings are also visible, one behind each pen. A Virginia rail fence runs along the foreground of the picture along the length of the cabin.

Important Visitors Mrs. Taylor and her daughter, Lucy, made at least three visits to the Massengales while in Rugby, walking over from Uffington House. Lucy’s surviving journal and Mrs. Taylor’s surviving watercolors provide an authentic look at the Appalachian welcome these two very proper Victorian ladies received. Reproduced at left is Mrs. Taylor’s painting of the Massengale cabin, and below her sketch of Betty Lowe spinning.

Mrs. Taylor was the wife of London Punch editor and playwright, Tom Taylor. His most famous play, “Our American Cousin”, was being watched by President Lincoln when he was shot.

Mrs. Taylor and Lucy were among Margaret’s and young Emily Hughes’ oldest and closest friends from England. They arrived on their first visit to Rugby founder Thomas Hughes’ mother and niece in 1887 to find that Margaret had just passed away and Emily was mourning the loss of both her grandmother and her fiancé Charles Wilson.

From Lucy’s Journal Nov. 11, 1887 – After dinner we went to see Mrs. Massengale, a native American, who lives in a log-house not far off. She was verry puzzy* & carded wood & spun some to show us how it was done; her sister, who is older than herself was smoking a pipe.

Nov. 14, 1887 – In the afternoon Mamma & I went to Mrs. Massengale’s. Mama made a sketch of the house; Mrs. M’s sister came out and invited us to go in, which we did; she was carding & spinning wool; Mama made a little sketch of her – After she had spun a little she lighted her pipe & sat by the fire & talked to us; she was very puzzy tho’ rather melancholy; she must have been very handsome, she is still very good-looking.

Nov. 17, 1887 – In the afternoon Mamma & I walked to Mrs. Massengale’s & took her some tobacco, with which she was very much pleased. There is a great forest fire raging not very far from the Massengales.

• “Puzzy”, as used in Lucy Taylor’s journal, is meant, according to family records, to describe someone as very appealing and perhaps humorous. Lucy uses the word to describe Emily Hughes’ dog Boojums in another entry!

The Massengales Change Their Minds An 1879 letter from early Rugby Board of Aid official John Boyle to Judge Oliver Temple, the board’s attorney in Knoxville, reveals that the Massengales initially decided to sell their property to the British colonizing group, but then changed their minds. Picture that sale document hidden away for years somewhere in the Massengale cabin.

“The Massengale property was a week or so ago secured by Mr. Clarke, and the document signed by all parties. This evening, however, having been invited to visit the family, and proceeding to read, at their request, the document once again, just as he turned the first page the old lady snatched the document from his hand and pocketing it said ‘I’ll keep this. I want to read it through again’. Mr. Clarke might, by keeping his hold, have torn it – but he preferred not to do this – and contented himself with pointing out the illegality of the act and letting her know that this proceeding would not interfere with the operation of the instrument whose contents were well known and would have to be acted upon, as a fairer document was never drawn.

This strange episode made a sensation, but to keep it to ourselves, we are determined for the present to take no notice of it, there being an impression with some that [the Massengales] will speedily come to their senses and return the document, but I am not sure that I share this confidence.”

From the Olvier Temple Papers – UT Special Collections.

[Caption]: Elizabeth (Betty Ann) Massengale c. 1885 in front of the left cabin pen.

[Caption]: Mary Lowe November 1887. Sketch by Mrs. Taylor

Erected by Historic Rugby.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical date for this entry is April 30, 1901.

Location. 36° 21.412′ N, 84° 42.252′ W. Marker is near Rugby, Tennessee, in Morgan County. It can be reached from Farrington Road. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Rugby TN 37733, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in East Tennessee

and in the Cumberland Plateau.

It is also in the American South,

specifically in the Upper South,

in Appalachia,

and specifically in Southern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the original Cherokee Nation,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Early Rugby’s Appalachian Neighbors (about 600 feet away, measured in a direct line); Welcome to the Massengale Homeplace (about 800 feet away); Roadside Cottage/Grey Gables (approx. 0.3 miles away); Perrigo/Alexander Boarding House (approx. 0.3 miles away); Thomas Fardon's Drug Supply & Home (approx. 0.4 miles away); The Tabard Inn (approx. half a mile away); Gentlemen's Swimming Hole (approx. 0.9 miles away); Morgan County / Scott County (approx. 5½ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Rugby.

Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker.

Credits. This page was last revised on November 11, 2024. It was originally submitted on April 6, 2023, by Tom Bosse of Jefferson City, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 1,664 times since then and 250 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on April 6, 2023, by Tom Bosse of Jefferson City, Tennessee. • James Hulse was the editor who published this page.